The big secret
by slowroad
Summary: Harry and Draco are in their eighth year and they are in a secret relationship. Written for: The hd writers Back to Hogwars Challenge over on LJ.
1. Chapter 1

It is not easy to be in a secret relationship, particularly when you're at school. It is even harder when you're me, Harry Potter, saviour of the wizarding world and all that rot. Not only are my friends awfully curious about where I go and what I do, the whole bloody school wants to know...all the time. So it is not easy to get away for a secret rendezvous with my boy-friend.

So I plot and I plan. I use my invisibility cloak and I look for secluded places around the castle. It is astonishing how many there are. But our favourite place to meet is the shrieking shack. We've cleaned the place up and made it really nice. The bed is fabulous, huge and ridiculously comfortable. How can it not be? Draco was the one who picked it out.

He's also the one who put a spell on the passage that leads from the whomping willow to the shrieking shack so that anyone who gets in will only see a ruin that was burnt down in the war. Even Ron and Hermione think the place was destroyed. So that is our place and that is where I'm headed. At least I was, until I realised that I was hungry. I figured that Draco might be hungry too. Dinner was hours ago.

So went over to the kitchens and got a house-elf to pack me a few sandwiches and some chocolate cake. Draco loves chocolate cake and I owe him for having failed to meet him at the Quidditch pitch this afternoon. I'd badly wanted to go flying with him, but I'd messed up my polyjuice in Potions this morning and I was forced to spend the afternoon working on it.

I took the sandwiches and the cake and got under my invisibility cloak again. It was after hours and though curfew did not apply to eighth years, I had no desire to be caught getting out of the castle this late at night. I glanced at my watch. 11:10.

I was already ten minutes late. I could see Draco prowling, ready to tear the place apart in his impatience. I made my way across the grounds, got past the whomping willow and into the shrieking shack. Draco was waiting for me and he looked seriously put out.

"Where the hell were you? I've been waiting and waiting. First you don't show up in the afternoon and then I don't see you at dinner and now this!"

"I'm sorry, Draco. You know Slughorn kept me back to work on my potion. And I would have made it down for dinner except it's Ron's birthday today and his mum invited us to The Burrow. I tried to get a message to you, but I couldn't get away. I'm sorry."

He huffed in response. I tried to look as contrite as possible.

"Stop making puppy eyes at me!" he said. He had his arms folded across his chest and he looked so like a petulant child. All because he'd missed me. Do you have any idea how adorable that is?

I put my cloak and the food aside and I went to him. He pouted. I put one hand on his shoulder and the other in his hair and I reached up to kiss him. He didn't respond for one, two, three seconds and then he grabbed me and kissed me fiercely.

Before I knew it, we were on the bed, pressed close together, kissing and frantically trying to get rid of our clothes. This is how it had started for us, with sex. Just stress relief, we had said, but somewhere along the way I'd gone and fallen in love and so has he, I think.

We continued to kiss as we finally got rid of all those pesky clothes and soon he had me pressed against the mattress as he pushed into me. He held still for one beat and looked right at me and then he began to move and all I remember after that was this intense pleasure and a certainty that this was right. This was perfect.

We were both a bit desperate. We hadn't so much as kissed all day, but we took our time. I kept my eyes on his face. He looks so beautiful, coming apart like this. I followed him just seconds later and we collapsed in a boneless heap, holding on to each other as we tried to figure out how to breathe again.

He rolled off after a couple of minutes. I reached for my wand and cleaned us up. He turned and smiled and then he draped himself over me. That the way he likes to sleep. He says it keeps the nightmares away. It keeps my nightmares away too, so I'm not about to argue. Draco nuzzled against my neck and kissed me softly.

"I missed you," he said. "And it hurt."

He loves me alright.


	2. Chapter 2

It was the middle of March. Draco and I had been together for nearly four months and so far, no one knew about us. They knew that we were no longer fighting and that we studied together sometimes, but that was about it. It was a bit of a thrill to have such a big secret and to carry on under everyone's nose, but it was frustrating as well.

We had to be vigilant, always aware of the fact that someone might be looking at us...it was hard not to reach for Draco when I saw him in the corridor. It was hard not to smile at him like he is the most amazing person in the world, which he is...

It was starting to get to me. We had decided to keep our relationship a secret because it had started out being only about the sex and that is the sort of thing you don't advertise. It was no longer only about the sex, but we'd neither of us acknowledged that yet.

So I decided to bring it up with Draco. I decided to tell him that I love him very much and that I'd like to keep him forever. I had it all planned out, the meal the speech, the romance, the sex...it was going to be fabulous.

But things did not turn out as expected because the day after I made my big plan, I was hit on head by a bludger and knocked unconscious. It was the final game of the year. We were playing against Ravenclaw and just half an hour into the game I was hit on the back of my head by a bludger. I woke up several hours later to the sound of a whispered argument.

"Are you going to leave already?" Ron was saying.

"No," Draco said calmly.

"You've been here for hours." Ron was clearly indignant.

"So have you."

"I'm Harry's friend."

"And I'm Harry's..." Draco hesitated and my heart twisted. I could imagine how much this situation was hurting him.

"You're not his friend and you will never be," Ron said. He sounded so aggressive. It got on my nerves, but Ron was not my concern just then.

I opened my eyes. "Draco..." I said as I held out my hand.

There was a chorus of voices calling my name. Draco, Ron, Hermione, Ginny...

"Draco," I said again.

"I'm here, Harry," he said as he took my hand and sat down beside me. "How do you feel?"

"Sore."

"Well you were hit by a bludger," he said as he offered me my glasses.

I blinked as the room slowly came back into focus. I saw my friends looking at me and Draco with varying degrees of shock, surprise, confusion and amusement. Ron opened his mouth to say something, but he was quickly shushed by the girls. I smiled gratefully at them and turned back to Draco.

"How long was I out?" I said.

"More than six hours." He tried to keep his voice light, but it was obvious from his face that he'd been worried sick.

"It's okay. I'm okay now."

"You always say that. I'm not going to believe it until I hear it from Pomphrey," Draco said. He made to get up, but I pulled him back down.

"Please don't go." I was sore and exhausted and I just wanted Draco to hold me for a bit while I went back to sleep.

He looked like he was going to protest. Then he sighed and nodded. "What do you need?" he said.

"Just hold me for a bit, yeah?"

"Sure. Of course."

He caressed my cheek and then he leaned forward and kissed me softly. Then he began to run his fingers through my hair. I love it when he does that. I sighed and closed my eyes while he soothed me back to sleep.

The last thing I heard was Hermione saying, "Let's go, Ron. Harry is clearly in very good hands."


	3. Chapter 3

It was the afternoon of the next day, by the time Madam Pomphrey let me go. She told me to go straight to my dorm and stay in bed for the rest of the day. Draco had come to see me at lunch-time. We'd talked and we'd laughed, but we'd both been a bit uncomfortable.

We needed to talk about our relationship and about our feelings for each other, but the infirmary wasn't private enough for that conversation.

Draco had left after lunch to go back to school and I had an hour of sitting back and thinking before Madam Pomphrey gave me bunch of potions and let me go. I went up the stairs to the eighth year common room, wondering if I could somehow get Draco alone that evening. .

I found an owl waiting for me in the dorm. It was a smart little thing, sitting on my bed post, looking important. I offered him an Owl Treat, which he plucked rather daintily out of my hand, before sticking his leg out so I could take the letter from him.

It was a letter from Molly. Ginny had apparently told her about my accident. She wanted to know how I was. I wrote her a quick reply telling her that I had been released from the infirmary and that I was okay. I sent it off after offering the owl another treat.

I knew Draco would be in class, but I wanted to see for myself. Not that I thought he would cut class and go somewhere else, but I like looking for him on the Marauder's map when he's not with me. It is one of the many ways in which I obsess about him.

I dug up the map and there he was, in Transfiguration as expected. Hermione and Ron were there too. I wondered what they were going to say now that they knew about me and Draco.

Hermione would understand, but Ron was a whole other matter. I felt tired just thinking about it. I put the map back in my trunk, kicked off my shoes and lay back in bed. I was better, but I was still tired enough to need a nap.

I drifted off to sleep and I had the strangest dream. I was on the Knight bus and I was going somewhere, running away from something. I was terrified. There were voices and screaming. Voldermort was coming after me.

I had to do something. I didn't know what. The bus was going at a crazy speed with Stan yelling at the driver to go faster and faster. Why was I alone? Where was Draco?

Where were Ron and Hermione? Were they okay. I needed to know. So I tried to send my patronus, but my wand wasn't working and I didn't know what to do…

And then someone was calling my name. It sounded like Draco. Draco! I sat up with a jolt, looking wildly around me and sure enough Draco was there. He had his arms around me and he was trying to get me to calm down.

"Harry, it's okay. You're okay. No one is after you, love," he said.

I realized that I had been dreaming, but that feeling of fear and helplessness was overwhelming. I leaned my head against Draco's shoulder, and I tried to calm down. Draco kissed the top of my head and stroked my back and kept telling me that it was okay. I was okay. He made me feel safe…It took a while, but I settled down. The dream receded and I found myself wrapped in Draco's warmth and his voice and his smell. I relaxed. I nuzzled into his neck.

"I love you," I whispered.

"I know," he said. "Though I find it impossible to understand why you would choose me of all people."

"Because you're perfect."

He snorted.

"You're not perfect as a person, but you're perfect for me. You're exactly what I need. And I love you."

He didn't say anything for a moment. I couldn't see his face because he was still holding me to his chest. I could hear his heart, though and it was beating as fast as mine was.

"I love you too," he said.

"I know."

"I don't deserve you."

It was my turn to snort. "You're stuck with me," I said.

"Forever?"

"And then some."


End file.
